Aftershocks...

From a friend in response to my earthquake email:

“Just because the floor really was shaking does not in fact prove that youare not crazy. I am quite sure that there is mass of evidence pointingtoward your insanity. But rather than worry about that I will simply referto you from now on as "Crazy Meredith" and ask that you please keep yourselfsafe because I do in fact look forward to sharing your company again someday.”

Point taken Scottie. Thanks for that. ;-P Quite frankly, I’m surprised he’s the only one that took that shot at me. Shortly after sending the email, I realized my mistake.

And so, things move on here as normal. Almost. Apparently the reports of people running screaming out of their buildings DID happen, but I didn’t hear any of it. (I think people around here are absolutely justified in their fear of another calamitous disaster on par with that of 3 months ago. My annoyance comes from some of the major media outlets making it sound worse than it actually was here.) It would’ve taken 10 minutes, minimum to actually exit the building. To me, it seemed safer to stay where I was at. However, having never experienced an earthquake before, I’m tempted to wonder if this may be flawed reasoning. (Especially with 9 more floors above me). It appeared that since the region that was hit hard was not immediately accessible to the media, KL got the front page pics for awhile, even though the tremors weren’t that strong here. A friend who lives across town, who said she didn’t feel anything, told me this morning:

Her: ‘Apparently they evacuated our building for awhile last night.’
Me: ‘Apparently?’
Her: ‘Yeah, no one told us until our neighbor mentioned it this morning.’

Of course, I’m not exactly clear on who ‘they’ were…

Still crossing my fingers that the damage in Indonesia is minimal. They’ve certainly had far more than their fair share of trials and tribulations recently.

Other than that, things are pretty ‘biasa’ (normal) around here. Unless you count the kuching-kuching running back and forth over the keyboard and obstructing my typing. I’ve had Azizah and Azlan about a week now, and they’ve been lots of fun so far. There’s a couple pics of them on the blog site. The male, Azlan, appears to be getting quite large, quite quickly. Azizah, on the other hand doesn’t appear to be getting any bigger at all. They both seem quite healthy though. Animal population control in this region has long been an issue, stray cats and dogs are a very normal sight around here. Because of that, the SPCA of Malaysia has started a program to neuter or spay cats and dogs for RM 50 (USD $13), so guess where they get to go this weekend? The program appears to be having some effect, as there is a noticeable difference in the stray population since the last time I visited Malaysia.

Another thing that’s become ‘biasa’ lately? The rain. More and more of it. The humidity seems to rarely drop below 85%, and usually it’s closer to 95%. Then, when it hits 100%, voila, downpour. Currently, that is exactly what it’s doing outside. Now, instead of happening from 4 to 6, it seems to be more like 2 to 7. When it isn’t actually raining, it’s so damp, you almost wish it were. Hair is a disaster, but I’m dealing. ;-) It may break my resolve to grow my hair out though. It’s getting pretty hot under here.

Tomorrow I have to do a presentation in class and I have an exam. I’ve grounded myself from traveling until I’m through my first round of exams, due to end at the end of next week… Speaking of which… time to get back to the studying… Hope everything is going well on your side of the planet…

From three degrees north of the equator and 500 miles east of the epicenter….
That is all for now...